A review by jessaminebooks
Unnatural History by Jonathan Green
adventurous
mysterious
2.75
The writing kind of drags... Which is weird for me to say, because I LIKE long fiction and epic reads where it takes forever for anything to happen. Its very much a work of modern Victorian Gothic. The style has been EXCELLENTLY duplicated, perhaps to the point that it almost doesn't stand apart on its own.
Ulysses Quicksilver is Sherlock Holmes. Not just a Sherlockian figure, he is basically a duplicate of Holmes. He has his mannerisms, his speech patterns, his attitude... He says "the game is on" or "the game is afoot" four times though out the book. The man even returns from a presumed death. His butler Nimrod is ill-named, and a clear Watson stand-in: a well-groomed man of a lower class that serves as a moral guide to the detective figure. Genevieve Galapagos is a clear Irene Adler, the hidden femme-fatale that the good detective falls for. Its like Sherlock Holmes fanfic that has had the names replaced (except if it were fanfic, it would be a lot gayer).
That said, I think this has a lot of potential. The mystery was well executed. What makes this book stand apart is the fascinating world that it takes place in, but that's also the biggest frustration. The world is epic and intriguing and yet we learn nothing about how or why it works the way it does. HOW has Victorian come to live long enough to rule for over 150 years (the book provides an explanation for this, but not until the last few chapters and then not as thoroughly as I would like. She's mostly mechanical, but it doesn't exactly explain what she looks like, what mechanical parts she does and does not have, etc. etc)? How do dinosaurs and robots exist in the same time period? How is it that evolution occurs in some situations, but not in others? I really LIKE this world, because its interesting, but it doesn't serve a lot of PURPOSE in this story. I hate frivolous changes in steampunk for the sake of something shiny. In alternative history, every change that is made needs to have a REASON, and I couldn't find a single purpose for the dinosaurs.
Ulysses Quicksilver is Sherlock Holmes. Not just a Sherlockian figure, he is basically a duplicate of Holmes. He has his mannerisms, his speech patterns, his attitude... He says "the game is on" or "the game is afoot" four times though out the book. The man even returns from a presumed death. His butler Nimrod is ill-named, and a clear Watson stand-in: a well-groomed man of a lower class that serves as a moral guide to the detective figure. Genevieve Galapagos is a clear Irene Adler, the hidden femme-fatale that the good detective falls for. Its like Sherlock Holmes fanfic that has had the names replaced (except if it were fanfic, it would be a lot gayer).
That said, I think this has a lot of potential. The mystery was well executed. What makes this book stand apart is the fascinating world that it takes place in, but that's also the biggest frustration. The world is epic and intriguing and yet we learn nothing about how or why it works the way it does. HOW has Victorian come to live long enough to rule for over 150 years (the book provides an explanation for this, but not until the last few chapters and then not as thoroughly as I would like. She's mostly mechanical, but it doesn't exactly explain what she looks like, what mechanical parts she does and does not have, etc. etc)? How do dinosaurs and robots exist in the same time period? How is it that evolution occurs in some situations, but not in others? I really LIKE this world, because its interesting, but it doesn't serve a lot of PURPOSE in this story. I hate frivolous changes in steampunk for the sake of something shiny. In alternative history, every change that is made needs to have a REASON, and I couldn't find a single purpose for the dinosaurs.